ELECTROSPHERE: Rena's Test Flight
by The Wilky Bar Kid
Summary: Rena Hirose and her specially modified SU-37R must undertake a test flight in front of a high ranking general.
1. Rena's Test Flight

FOREWORD

Pre-2040. During a period of financial chaos, the many governments of the world have eroded to nothing but corporatocracies the two biggest being Neucom Inc. and General Resources Ltd (formerly Grunder Industries). These corporations, not unlike the governments they control, have disputes often, and war is never far away.

An organization of the New United Nations the Universal Peace Enforcement Organisation (UPEO) was established to police these new corporatocracies and maintain peace on Earth. But unknown to all a new force is lurking on the horizon...

* * *

There was a gentle wind blowing over the airfield at the UPEO's test base in North Point. Three men were standing beside the main runway. One of them was checking his watch as he anxiously waited. He wore the uniform of the Universal Peace Enforcement Organisation and had the rank insignia of a white Dove encircled by a ring of silver feathers indicating that he was a Major. The second man was setting up a high speed camera next to a small table with a laptop perched on top. He wore rather unexciting standard civilian clothes. The third man stood firm as he waited. Adorning his shoulders were two stars indicating that he was a Brigadier General within the UPEO and his eyes seemed to roll in agitation. He didn't believe this project was going to work anyway and the delay that had been reported from the hangar only increased his aggravation. Patiently or not, the three men continued to wait.

* * *

The SU-37R sat in the closed hangar as ground crew worked furiously to continue the loading of the weapons onto the aircraft. The delay was caused by a malfunction on the hydraulic jack that loaded the weapons pylon onto the inboard station of the wings. Loading the port wing had gone relatively smoothly but during the loading of the starboard wing the jack had failed and a replacement had to be quickly sought. Now they had brought in a new one and continued with the loading.

Rena sat in the enclosed cockpit of the SU-37R wearing her custom produced suit and helmet that covered her whole body. From birth Rena had suffered from a condition called Silverstone disease which means that if she was to go out into direct sunlight without this special suit on the rays from the sun would kill her. But there was no worry about that in her aircraft because her SU-37R (R for Rena) like all Connection For Flight Interface or COFFIN aircraft the cockpit had no windows. Instead there were almost fifty fibre optic high intensity cameras located at key points around the aircraft. The images from these cameras were sent directly into her brain via the neural interface located on the back of her neck that allowed her to control the whole aircraft through her brain. Throughout the whole flight she wouldn't need to move any part of her body.

Rena watched closely as the ground crew finally lifted the second pylon up to her aircraft. The pylon had six missiles in two batches of three mounted one behind the other to reduce drag. These little missiles, designated MTM-17 Aphids, were quite useful little things. Guided by infra-red they had a duel tasking in that they could be guided onto ground targets as well as be used in the close range air-to-air role. With loading complete Rena accessed her weapons panel. To Rena it appeared as though she were sitting in mid air inside the hangar since the COFFIN system, when active, replaces the brain signals normally received by the brain from the eyes with its own data. Coupled with the images from the camera was a three dimensional heads up display that seemed to completely encompass her and offered a wealth of information at only a glance. The weapons panel appeared as a small box with a diagram of her SU-37R on it and would seem to be located near her right arm. Her weapons computer confirmed that loading was complete and the display showed that she was armed with twelve MTM-17s and three hundred and fifty rounds in the 23mm cannon.

* * *

Major Tomlinson breathed a sigh of relief as the word came down that the aircraft was ready for its test flight. Everything was riding on today going smoothly and the malfunctioning hydraulic jack was not a good start. He turned to Brigadier General Ross standing beside and said, "Everything is ready General. The aircraft is taxiing onto the runway as we speak." With its two pulse jet engines whistling in the distance both Ross and Tomlinson turned to see the SU-37R turn onto the end of main runway almost a mile away. "Here she comes now. I can assure you, General Ross, that you will not be disappointed!"

"As you have repeatedly said" replied Ross. "But I can assure you it will take a lot to convince me. As I'm sure your aware I am a strong advocate of replacing the UPEO's entire fighter force with the new AI unmanned combat aircraft. I have fought against the continuing development of these neural interface technologies since I believe that the days of manned aircraft going into combat is finally coming to an end."

"General!" protested Tomlinson. "While I agree that the prospect of zero-risk to our pilots in a combat zone is an attractive one, the results of this test will prove that the 2nd generation COFFIN system will once again prove that manned aircraft will still dominate the battlefield and that the risk to our pilots is an acceptable one if we want to achieve victory with the minimal of collateral damage."

"Why don't we cut the chit-chat and let your pilot argue your case shall we?" interjected Ross. "The new AI-2034 piloted version of the latest model SU-37 has conducted this very same test and achieved a proficiency rating of 92.5%. To me it's clear that this is as high as it will get before the next generation of combat aircraft are developed and I'm almost certain that those aircraft will be AI controlled."

"That is why the Chiefs-of-Staff chose you to view this demonstration General" explained Tomlinson. "They believe that if this project can convince you then it can convince anyone and I agree. I admit that me and my team are, respectfully, taking a gamble by having you here sir. But if that's the only way to see that our project goes passed the R'n'D phase and into full scale production then so be it."

The two men watched as the SU-37R began its take off. The aircraft had already left the runway, its undercarriage safely tucked into the fuselage and was at five hundred feet before it passed over their heads. The SU-37R then tipped up its nose turning sharply into a Cobra manouver before an echoing roar of its engines followed the full afterburners that sent it rocketing up vertically at tremendous speed. Within a span of a few seconds it was little more than a rapidly climbing dot to the three observers near the runway. The civilian aide had taken numerous photographs of the aircraft as it passed overhead for analysis and publicity purposes.

"Now we'll see Major" said Ross smiling devilishly as if he knew the outcome. "Now we'll see."


	2. Running the Gauntlet

Rena levelled off at 10,000ft and held the aircraft steady as she transitted towards the test range. Given that she was wired up to the COFFIN control system to her it appeared as though she were flying freely through the air. It was always a sad realisation for her that this was the closest she would ever be able to get to experiencing what it would be like to go outside without her suit. Maybe that's why she loved flying so much? It was a short journey to the test area and she dipped the nose of her SU-37R to begin a descent into the valley. The test would effectively be a time trial event through the valley. Eighteen rings would be projected onto her HUD and she would have to fly through these 'checkpoints' in the quickest time possible. To make things even more difficult she would have to destroy eight designated targets along the route. Once she entered the test range she radioed to the range controller, "November-Papa Control this is Dove 1 ready to proceed."

"Roger that Dove 1. The clock will start the moment you pass through the first checkpoint. You may proceed at your discretion!"

"Roger!" A small green ring appeared on her HUD at the base of the valley and Rena began her approach towards it. The closer she got to it the larger it got until finally she passed through it. This was it! She was in the gauntlet! She pulled up the nose and opened the throttle as she began to climb towards the next ring which appeared at the top of a nearby mountain peak. The ring got larger and larger until again she passed through it. The next one appeared on the valley floor and Rena rolled her SU-37R onto it s back and with its canards and thrust vectoring nozzles working hard to control it she threw the plane into a steep dive, white vortices streaming from her wingtips as she cut through the air. Rolling back over she applied her airbrake and tilted the nose upward to achieve maximum drag to help slow her aircraft down as she again passed through a checkpoint.

A target now appeared on the side of the cliff face and Rena pulled around to the right as hard as she could. She selected her missile and designated the target before releasing her weapon in its direction. She had no time to watch it impact because she was already turning for the next checkpoint which hung in mid air almost directly over the target and Rena had to perform a thrust vectoring loop to pass through it in time. Although she didn't know it her missile had successfully struck the target and she was well on course.

* * *

Ross and Tomlinson watched her progress on the small laptop that sat on the desk. A blue arrow indicated her progress and it was making excellent time through the valley. Both Ross and Tomlinson were extremely agitated but for different reasons. One wanted her to succeed. The other wanted her to fail. For the next eleven checkpoints they watched as Rena made excellent time and had successfully destroyed all six targets that she had encountered thus far. Ross was quick to note however that her progress didn't appear to be too dissimilar to the AI controlled test but they wouldn't know for sure until the end.

* * *

On the test range a missile struck an old truck that had been strategically placed under an overhanging cliff face destroying it completely as the SU-37R raced overhead like an avenging angel. Rena knew she had only one target left as she raced up into the fifteenth checkpoint. Pulling a hard 8G turn towards checkpoint sixteen she realised that she had been bleeding a lot of energy in her turn and so she opened her throttles to make up time. She roared through mach 1 as checkpoint sixteen's ring passed over her. But then to her horror she realised that she was out of position and travelling too fast to attack the last target that passed underneath her. She had only seconds to react or risk missing it altogether. She knew that it would cost her valuable time to turn around and attack and so with only a heartbeat to react she rapidly dcreased power to her engine and using the canards and thrust vectoring nozzles she pulled the nose up so sharply that the aircraft seemed to slide as it's nose now turned away from the aircraft's direction of travel. Within the same time that it takes to blink Rena's SU-37R suddenly appeared to be flying backwards! Now facing the target, a burned out old tank, she designated it and released a missile from her port wing before applying full military power to her engines as she turned the aircraft back towards the direction of the last checkpoint. She knew that the manouver had drastically bleeded energy from her aircraft and once more she had to make up time. Fortunately the next check point was on the valley floor and she used the opportunity to increase speed as she dived towards it. Pulling up through the checkpoint she pulled up near pure vertically into a 12G climb as she thundered like a God of War through the last checkpoint. She had completed the course.

Relieved that it was over Rena climbed up to 10,000ft and began her transit back to the test base. It was an incredible contrast as she sat there, serenely, above the white cloud base that sat below from a few moments ago. The violence of the excessive G-force was gone and she sat back to enjoy the calmness of this type of flying. Her SU-37R was an extensively modified one with increased strength of the airframe to cope with the extreme G-forces it would encounter and yet right now it appeared as though it were gliding through the air like it was born in the sky. Rena loved her aircraft like it was her brother. It was everything to her and so was the project. She wanted it to succeed or she knew that her days of flying would be over and for her her that would be a fate worse than death.

* * *

General Ross was walking silently back to his car after viewing the test results. He hadn't said anything when the test score appeared on the screen at the end of the trial. Major Tomlinson couldn't help but keep staring at the number that flashed at the bottom of the screen as Rena's whole flight was repeatedly played out again and again. He looked up as he heard the approach of a pulse jet engine and watched in awe as Rena passed overhead performing a series of perfect barrel rolls along the length of the runway before pulling up and racing back into the heavens.

"You did it!" he said as he watched the aircraft climb like a proud father. "You did it!"

Flashing on the screen was the number 97.2. She had beaten the AI controlled fighter.


End file.
